Given – The Irish international was sharp off his line to take the ball off Kamara, then finished off with a late save from Zamora. 7
Richards – Started brightly, but then a few passes went astray. Needed to be tighter on his opponents in the second half. 6
Continue Reading →Memories of Sven’s last home match came flooding back as City once again let slip a two goal lead against Roy Hodgson’s Fulham. Second half goals from Joleon Lescott and Martin Petrov gave City the advantage, but a failure to heed earlier warnings saw them pegged back for a third consecutive draw.
Kolo Toure and Craig Bellamy returned to the starting line-up as expected. Ireland remained as sub while the big decision by Hughes was ‘rotating’ Wright-Phillips onto the bench. Bellamy played on the right, while Petrov held onto the coveted left wing position.
Continue Reading →Fulham return to Eastlands a month after their defeat in the Carling Cup, but this time we’ll be facing Roy Hodgson’s first choice side. City made hard work of the extra-time win with a jaded performance coming a few days after the defeat at Old Trafford.
This time Fulham could be tired ones, after playing on Monday night, then entertaining Roma in the Europa League on Thursday. It would be a mistake to consider them a pushover though. Hodgson did his best to rotate the team against Roma with the likes of Zamora and Duff only playing a portion of the game. A bit of tiredness won’t affect their organisation, and breaking down Fulham is no easy task these days.
Continue Reading →In the Fulham pre-match press conference, Mark Hughes said Robinho’s stress fracture has still not healed sufficiently and he wouldn’t be ready for 10-14 days. Transfer speculation surrounding the Brazilian was once again rebuffed, along with that around Michah Richards, who “has a big future here”.
“Robi is 10-14 days away because his stress fracture has not healed as anticipated.
“Any rumours linking him with a move away are a non-story. He will be back soon and I expect him to have a big part to play.”
Hughes would hardly announce plans to sell anyone in the environment of a pre-match press conference so this is unsurprising. News that Emmanuel Adebayor, Craig Bellamy and Carlos Tevez weren’t training with the main group today was more of a concern. However Hughes expects all three to be back tomorrow, and hopefully available for Sunday.
Kolo Toure is set to return, and Vincent Kompany will be in the squad again. This is excellent news regarding Kompany as his height and physical presence can give us something we lack on occasions. With his new contract signed, the Belgian international should be looking to force his way back into the starting 11.
Hughes also acknowledged that he would be keeping an eye on Liverpool v United this weekend to see who drops points. It would have been interesting to know who he wanted to win. Liverpool are looking the most vulnerable of the ‘big four’ so if he wants them to lose, it would mean we are chasing a place in the top four. If he wants United to lose, maybe he has got an eye on the title itself!